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1890. 



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Copyright, 1890, by J. B. Ltppincott Compaxy. 




ANDREW JACKSON. 



Jackson, Andrew, General, seventh president of 
the United States, was born at Waxhaw on the south- 
ern border of North Carohna, March 15, lyGy.f.^^^^'is 
father, an immigrant from the north of Ireland, died 
a few days before Andrew's birth, and his mother and 
brother succumbed to the hardships of the revolu- 
tionary war. After being admitted to the bar at Sal- 
isbury, North Carolina, Andrew removed in 1788 to 
Nashville, then a frontier settlement, and was ap- 
pointed public prosecutor. In 17^1 he married Mrs 
Rachel Robards, daughter of Colonel John Donelson, 
supposing that she had been divorced from her former 
husband. But the divorce not being legally granted 
until 1793, Jackson had the marriage ceremony re- 
peated. These circumstances furnished material for 
malignant attacks, and the irritable Jackson fought 
several duels, in one of which, after he had a rib 
broken, he killed his antagonist. In the new state of 
Tennessee Jackson was a leading man ; after helping 
to frame its constitution, he became its representative 
in congress in 17^6, its United States senator in 1797, 
and a judge of its supreme court in 1798. This posi- 



4 ANDREW JACKSON. 

tion he held until 1804, when he resigned. He gave 
some support to Aaron Burr's half-revealed schemes 
of conquest in the south-west, and when Burr was 
tried at Richmond in 1807 was still his steadfast par- 
tisan. 

When war was declared against Great Britain in 
18 1 2, Jackson, being major-general of the state militia, 
offered his services and led 2500 men to Natchez, but 
General Armstrong, the new secretary of war, ordered 
him to disband them. Jackson, however, marched 
them in a body back to Nashville, where soon 
afterwards, in an affray with Colonel T. H. Benton, 
he was severely wounded. With his fractured arm 
still in a sling, the general took the field in September 
^1813 against the Creek Indians in Alabama. This 
campaign, in which his military genius was first effec- 
tively displayed, was closed by a decisive victory at 
the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River, March 
27, 1 8 14. Henceforth he was familiarly called 'Old 
Hickory.' On May 31 he was made major-general in 
the regular army, and appointed to command the de- 
partment of the South. Pensacola in Spanish Florida 
being then freely used by the British as a base of 
operations, Jackson took the responsibility of invad- 
ing Spanish soil, stormed Pensacola, and when the 
British fleet withdrew marched to New Orleans, which 
was threatened by Sir E. Pakenham with 12,000 vet- 
erans. Jackson made his chief defence 4 miles below 
the city, where, along a ditch extending from a 
swamp to the Mississippi, he constructed earthworks. 
On January 8, i8f'5, under cover of a fog, Pakenham 
tried to carry these works by direct assault, but within 



ANDRE W J A CKSON. 5 

half an hour the British were repulsed with a loss of 
12600 men, including their commander, while the 
American loss was but V8 killed and 13 wounded. 
This battle was remarkable not only for the unprece- 
dented disparity of loss, but for the fact that it was 
fought after the treaty of peace had been signed at 
Ghent, December 24, 18 14. ^^ 

In 1 8 18 Jackson again invaded Florida, severely 
chastised the Seminoles, and executed Arbuthnot and 
Ambrister, convicted by court-martial, on very slight 
evidence, of inciting the Indians to war. After the 
purchase of Florida Jackson was its first governor, 
but soon resigned, and in 1823 he was again elected 
to the United States senate. In the next year as a 
candidate for the presidency he had the highest pop- 
ular vote, but not a majority. The choice was, there- 
fore, made by the House of Representatives from the 
three highest candidates, and J. Q. Adams was 
selected ; but when he appointed Henry Clay secre- 
tary of state, Jackson and his friends alleged that a 
bargain had been made, transferring Clay's votes to 
Adams. In 18^ Jackson was elected, having 178 
electoral votes out of a total of 261. The first presi- 
dent from beyond the Alleghanies, he was a typical 
product of the new democratic era — fearless, honest, 
but prompt to decide everything for personal reasons. 
A striking feature of his policy was the sweeping re- 
moval of minor officials and filling their places with 
his partisans. This system was aptly described by 
Senator W. L. Marcy in 1831 : * To the victor belong 
the spoils.' Jackson's first cabinet was broken up in 
consequence of his characteristic but futile effort to 



5 ANDRE W J A CKSON. 

compel social recognition of Secretary Eaton's wife 
by the families of the other secretaries. The second 
cabinet was in the main composed of abler men. 
Martin Van Buren, who had been secretary of state, 
was nominated minister to England, but after he had 
gone abroad his confirmation was defeated in the 
senate by the casting vote of Vice-president Calhoun. ^- 
This strenuous advocate of state sovereignty was now 
openly opposed to Jackson, as was shown at a ban- 
quet in 1830, when the president gave his famous 
toast — 'The Federal Union — it must be preserved,' 
and the vice-president responded with another — 
' Liberty — dearer than the Union.' Congress read- 
justed the tariff in 1832, retaining the protective sys- 
tem which had prevailed since the peace of 18 15, and 
against which South Carolina had protested as un- 
constitutional and oppressive. On November 24, 
1832, its state convention adopted an ordinance of 
nullification. President Jackson's proclamation, pre- 
pared by Edward Livingston, who had succeeded 
Van Buren as secretary of state, ably argued the 
whole question, and declared a firm determination to 
execute the laws and preserve the Union. Under the 
leadership of Clay, congress adopted a compromise 
tariff in March 1833, and South Carolina repealed its 
ordinance. 

^The president's veto power was much more freely 
used by Jackson than by his predecessors. His most 
memorable veto was that of a bill to renew the char- . 
ter of the United States Bank, which became the 
chief issue in the presidential campaign of 1832. 
Jackson, having obtained 219 electoral votes out of 



ANDRE W J A CKSON. y 

286, resolved to destroy the bank by removing the 
government deposits. Two successive secretaries of 
the treasury refused to do so, but a third who was 
not confirmed by the senate issued the order. The 
senate censured this act as usurpation, but Jackson had 
a closing triumph when the censure was expunged on 
January 16, 1837. In his administration the national 
de bt wa s fully paid in 1835, and the surplus revenue 
which accumulated was ordered to be distributed to 
the several states. In foreign affairs Jackson won 
credit by enforcing the claims for the spoliations com- 
mitted by French vessels during the wars of Napo- 
leon. In 1 83 1 France by treaty agreed to pay 
;^5, 000,000, but afterwards delayed payment. The 
president then recommended to congress to seize 
French vessels to make up the amount, and France 
after a protest paid the claim. Jackson's second term 
having expired on March 4, 1837, he retired to private 
life at the Hermitage, near Nashville, whence he still 
watched with keen interest the great political move- 
ments of the time. He died at the Hermitage, June 
^845. 

The most complete biography is by James Parton (3 vols. New- 
York, i860). For Jackson's administration, T. H. Benton's Thirty 
Years' Vietu, and Von Hoist's and other histories of the United 
States should be examined. See also the Life by Professor William 
G. Sumner, in the ' American Statesmen' series (1882). 



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